Maria Hoefl-Riesch continued the medal collection by the HEAD World Cup Rebels in Schladming with bronze in the Women’s Downhill. Marion Rolland won the race with Nadia Fanchini taking a surprise silver from start number 2. Hoefl-Riesch explained after the race that she “had risked everything and was super happy with the medal.”

“Third place is a great result,” Hoefl-Riesch explained, “It was not easy an slope and was very challenging, it was icy and had lots of changes of terrain. I was very lucky with the four hundredths separating me from fourth place.”

Hoefl-Riesch was asked about the course conditions as a lot of racers crashed during the race: “Downhill is dangerous. I like it when it is tough and challenging, much more than soft snow; it was fun, and like Lindsey said after Cortina, ‘you have to have big balls.’ Downhill is spectacular, it is really special and great for the world championships.”

Regarding the changing conditions, Hoefl-Riesch said that the light changing had played a part with some having bad luck with flat light. “For me it was sunny at top, dark in middle but I was lucky overall.”

For Julia Mancuso, fifth place was the result of her run: “I will take that, I would have liked better but I lost it through the traverse,” she said after her run. “It was a little slicker than during the Super Combined run down at the bottom.”

With Nadia Fanchini having taken an early lead from start number 2, the rest of the field had to cope with changing visibility through the middle section and this caused a lot of the main contenders to lose valuable time, including defending champion Lizz Goergl and Anna Fenninger. Goergl felt that she had done a good run, “but what can I do?” she continued. “When I look back to two years ago, it was a gift, everything has to work out; you can never expect this.”

For Fenninger, she was hindered by the changes in the light and a few mistakes yet also struggled with all the stops due to a number of racers crashing.